Order Only: Private Messages

[alt_justin]

Everyone,

Sorry to disturb, but I've been thinking. This is the second time someone has tried to access Draco's private correspondence, what. I say, I don't think we can treat that like a coincidence.

Bill, you've said there's no way to tamper with past messages. But is there a way to create a false record and replace it, just like the replica of the Hogwarts book?

For example, if we know that the suspect messages are all among Draco, Harry and Hermione, we could create pages with innocuous content, what, and somehow slip those in to the records instead of the ones they wrote. Then we'd have to destroy the record but surely that would be simple enough, compared to the rest.

-Justin

Comments

[alt_bill]

It's a good idea, Justin, and I appreciate your trying to to solve the problem with an original approach. But from what little I know about the back spell architecture of the private message system, I doubt it would work. My ignorance is partly due to the fact that Massopust did his best to freeze me out, of course, but it's also because the regime wants people to think that the private messages are private. When of course they aren't. And so the process of how they are recorded and can be monitored is all kept very hush-hush, and the security is formidable.

From the little I know, I have the impression that whenever private messages are written, the magic simultaneously records them in large, magical volumes of books. And they're also indexed, under both the writer and the recipients' names. So if you want to replace a message, you would have to go in and replace it in up to three different locations, matching up the dates, names and times. Of course, you would have to replace it with a message of approximately the same length, too.

I'm also not clear if it's one person per volume or not. If it isn't, then if you start fiddling with, say, Draco Malfoy's messages--if you can get by the security and have enough time to swap everything out--you might be messing with a volume which includes Lucius Malfoy. And anything that involves a volume his journal posts are in is certainly going to draw a great deal of scrutiny.

I just think it would be too difficult, technically.

[alt_harry]

What if someone just set the records on fire or something?

[alt_sirius]

Right, Harry. That wouldn't be suspicious at all.

Wonder if there's a way to convince Lucius Malfoy or Farty or someone to take the notion that all your records really ought to be destroyed. For the security of the family, of course.